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$7000 ....that included airfare, 3 nights at the Marriot for myself and my sister, cardiac work up, pre anesthetic bloodwork, surgery and 1 night stay at an International Center of Excellence, 2 months postop meds, unlimited postop consultation and nutritional support. Followup bloodwork with my PCP runs about $150/year.

Make sure you find the time to learn how to manage your stress with something other than food and drugs. Start seeing a therapist, join a support group, read bariatric surgery support books, start excercising, do yoga, take up a new hobby, whatever. Stress and hard times are certainly not going to magically disappear after surgery, and without alternative coping strategies, you will find yourself right back where you are now. Obesity is a mental disease, not a physical one and the psychological tools you arm yourself with are even more vital to success than the surgery itself.

Well first of all, just remember with WLS, statistics mean absolutely nothing when it comes to YOUR personal outcome. According to the statistics I should have only lost 60% of my excess weight. Instead I've lost over 100%. Instead of gaining regaining 8-10% after the first year or so, I've actually just lost an additional 4 pounds (4%) at 2 1/2 years out. But of course in order to make the statistics "work", that means someone else out there only lost 20% of their excess weight and someone else regained 14% at 2 years out. Don't get too hung up on everyone else's numbers, because when it comes down to it, you are the one who chooses which end of the spectrum you will be.

Exactly why it would take so long to digest. And your pyloric valve isn't gonna let it through till it reaches a certain size .

Hey, stick around. This forum is more entertaining than TV and cheaper than going to a movie.

Just FYI, I did not use the term conscience with any sort of religious implications. I meant it simply as a personal measurement of what an individual feels is right or wrong. Acting in accordance with your conscious leaves you with feelings of morality, integrity and psychological balance. Acting against your own conscious leads to feelings of guilt, shame or self loathing. My reference to the term was quite secular.

@@Shaydi.Laine Yes, I make better food choices, I take my vitamins, I do all those things I need to do to maintain my weight loss, blah, blah, blah. I know I am ultimately responsible for my success, but I could not have lost this weight and kept it off without surgery. And neither could anyone else on this forum. I'm simply giving credit where credit is due. My conscience dictates what I am comfortable telling others and everyone else should do the same.

I don't post it on social media or anything, but whenever anyone asked how I was losing weight, I told them I had surgery and eat a high protein/low carb diet. I usually had to explain VSG because most people only know about lapband and bypass. But I'd answer any questions they had and then move on. Since I see dozens of clients/day, I've had this WLS conversation a couple hundred times. I am not ashamed of my surgery and have gotten nothing but support and well wishes. Three people have actually had WLS after seeing and hearing about my success. The fact is I did not lose weight through "diet and excercise", I lost it because I had 85% of my stomach removed. I just would not have felt comfortable lying to everyone I know. But that's just me.

I lost 17 pounds at 3 months postop. The difference between you and me was I was ecstatic! Which means there are no words to described how thrilled you should be. 50 pounds in 3 months has gotta be some kind of record. But you should also know you can't possibly maintain this rate of loss, so I would suggest you lower your expectations, relax, enjoy the journey and bask in your phenomenal success so far.

Definitely tell them in the morning. Like daniotra said, some pain meds can cause bleeding issues. Or they may want to adjust the preanesthetic drugs they give you. Or the pain meds may be out of your system and it won't be a big deal. But your doctor took you off the meds for a reason, so definitely let them know you took some.

I had very generous lifting restrictions....nothing over 20 pounds for 3 weeks. I was back to my usual daily lifting of 40-60 pounds exactly on day 21 with no problems. Was lifting 80 pounds around two months out. But everyone is different, so check with your surgeon to be sure.

Really anything that you can eat a lot of and never get full because they compress so small and once they hit the stomach they slide right through. Any kind of liquid.....high carb coffee drinks, milk shakes, fruit smoothies, ice cream, alcohol, etc are obvious sliders. Cookies, chips, popcorn and other "airy" foods are sliders. (They really don't take up that much space once the air is chewed out of them). Even some otherwise nutritious foods can be considered sliders if you can easily eat more than what your calorie limitations allow. For example, nuts and nut butters were a good source of fat and Protein for me early on. But I discovered they never really made me feel full and I like them so much I could easily eat a whole jar of Peanut Butter. They are no longer allowed in my house. Slider foods are especially dangerous for those with a sensitive sleeve. Dense protein can be uncomfortable and it might be a lot less painful to eat slider foods. I hear this as an excuse for poor food choices from my friend with a lapband and from a couple bypass friends a lot.

I think lipstick lady described the thread progression exactly. For us "oldies", we've read dozens (maybe hundreds) of posts from newbies asking if it's OK that they ate "X" too soon postop. The answer is usually no. If it was OK they wouldn't be asking. They know it's wrong, but here they are, looking for justification. So yet again, here's a newbie asking if it's OK that they are grazing on high carb foods just 2 months postop. My response was based on the limited info in the OP and seeing how that type of behavior has led to WLS failure in so many others. It's not so much what was eaten as how quickly so many return to behaviors that led to their obesity in the first place. And Guess what....the results will be the same. Unfortunately for the more sensitive strangers on here, I am not a cuddler, either online or in real life. My friends and I are mature enough to handle blunt, honest comments when one of us is doing something stupid or when asking for advice. I keep forgetting the vast majority of the rest of the world is into handholding and being politically correct. But then again, I passed my goal weight almost 2 years ago, lost 115% of my excess weight and kept it off, so what the hell do I know about it what it takes to be successful anyways?

I freeze protein shakes and eat them like ice cream. Torani syrups and different protein powders lend themselves to unlimited flavors....chocolate peanut butter, vanilla almond, chocolate hazelnut, banana nut, caramel red velvet cake, cake batter and cookie dough, strawberry, raspberry cake, Irish cream, peppermint, vanilla coconut.....mmmmmm.

Well, If you track everything you eat and what you ate fit within your guidelines and your guidelines are resulting in losing weight and you are ultimately able to maintain that loss with your subsequent eating patterns years down the line then the answers to your questions are "no" and "no". Sounds like you and your doctor have a great plan laid out, so it doesn't appear you need anyone's advice. Especially if it's not the advice you were looking for.

If you are going to lose you are going to lose. It's just your body's response to surgery and nothing you can do about it. I never took any biotin or used any special products and I never lost a single strand of hair. I did always meet or exceed protein goals and I never spent one minute stressing about potential hairloss, so maybe that's the way to go....

Well, first of all you ate bread. One of the #1 postop rules is no bread, Pasta, rice, or simple carbs during the losing phase. And secondly, yes, that's a boatload of food. I'm 2 1/2 years out and can't eat that much (and I STILL wouldn't eat that much bread even if I could). Weren't you given a diet plan with portion guidelines? Told about grazing? Your sleeve can only do so much. What and how frequently you eat are still your responsibility. Don't mean to preach, but if you want the simple answers to your questions, they are "yes" and "yes".

BTW, you might not want to try anything new on the trip. Definitely do a test run with whatever you plan on taking along beforehand. You never know how your pouch may react to certain foods so early out! @@jaxmom I used to live in Florida and have canoed the Peace River many a times. What a fun time!

Protein is a pretty easy option while camping. Last fall I did an overnight horse pack trip, so had to pack light. Here's what I did.... Breakfast - brought a hard boiled egg, Hormel bacon bits and a mayonnaise packet from the local convenience store. Packed it in a little tupperware and mixed it all up in that same container. Kind of a deconstructed deviled egg with bacon and no refrigeration needed. lunch - canned chicken and another mayo packet....mixed together for a chicken salad. Same could be done with tuna fish. Actually they make tuna salad foil packets that don't require refrigeration and would be easy to tote along. dinner - brought a small can of beenie weenies, popped the lid and heated it directly on the fire and ate it straight from the can. Dessert - brought a Quest S'mores bar and carefully warmed it in the fire till the chocolate got gooey. Tasted great!

Louisiana is one of the states that does not require individual ACA policies to cover WLS. So you are unlikely to find a policy at all that would cover it, unless your employer has opted to add that to their coverage. I am in ID and self employed so there is no policy from any company that I could get that would cover WLS. Because of this you are probably looking at self pay. That's what I did.... Saved up for over two years, had VSG at the Obesity Control Center in TJ, lost over 100% of my excess weight and am keeping it off 2 1/2 years later. Good luck.

Hiccups mean I ate too much. Try eating a couple bites less than you normally would and see what happens.

I was a big beer drinker preop. Actually took cross country road trips to sample microbrews and made my own beer a few times. Attended beer fests in several states (just missed the second largest one in the US only 60 miles from my house yesterday) and drank no less than a 12 pack/day on river trips and when camping. But postop my sleeve does not like carbonation. I could manage a couple sips here and there, but the carbonation is pretty uncomfortable. Fortunately my sleeve does like bourbon, tequila, vodka, wine, Apple Crown, twisted tea, and the random, hard to find non-carbonated hard cider. Ok, pretty much anything cold and non carbonated. (Ok, warm stuff too, like peppermint schnapps or baileys in hot chocolate). But if I do drink too much of any alcohol (like I did last night) I will get gastritis. A couple Rolaids or famotidine usually knocks it out, though.

Actually the OP stated she is finally getting enough fluids by "living on strawberry and tangerine outshine no sugar added popscicles". Since 1 1/2 ounces barely makes a dent in the 64oz we should be getting I'm assuming she's eating a LOT of them.

Wow, that's not much. You'd need to eat 45 of them / day to meet Fluid goals and that would also be 1125 calories of just carbs, no Protein whatsoever. I actually made my own popscicles by freezing Protein drinks in silicone molds. Two birds with one stone.....fluids and protein (and no carbs)

They should have the oz on the label, but if not, let one melt and then pour it into a measuring cup.